HYBRID work/collaboration

Employees around the world want to get back to the office, but at the same time expect to be able to spend an average of 2 days a week working from home or anywhere else. 42% of respondents say that working only from home stifles their team collaboration and reduces natural face-to-face social interaction. Remote work cannot be considered a benefit, but a global trend. Many companies recognize that working/collaborating remotely in a hybrid mode really works.

When the first wave of Covid-19 hit, most companies were forced to move most work to a remote mode. Some of them believed that this would mean the end or a significant reduction office spaces. Many people struggled to cope with social isolation. 49% of respondents said that they found working from home less fun. Only 15% of respondents said they would like to work from home full-time. 26% said they wanted to return to the office 5 days a week after the pandemic-related restrictions ended.

The survey revealed that employers need to think about a new strategy and corporate culture that will support a balanced hybrid way of (co)working: Some people working in an office space and some people doing work from home or anywhere. In other words, it is flexible work, when both the employee and the employer are aware of the advantages of working/collaboration from home (anywhere) or in the office.

The biggest disadvantages of working from home:

1. There is a lack of social life in the office and increasing levels of social isolation
2. It is more difficult to cooperate with colleagues
3. It is more difficult to contribute to remote meetings
4. Easy disturbance (by children, spouse, low level of privacy)
5. Distraction during work

HYBRID meetings

Will it really be necessary to revise the space plan of the office space? 23% of meetings are already a mix of physical and remote participants, and this proportion is increasing. 50% of respondents prefer formal meetings in a meeting room and 75% prefer pre-planned meetings to impromptu ones. 1 in 3 employees use standard meeting rooms daily. After the first wave of the pandemic, on average, one in four meetings already involved remote participants, and this trend will gradually increase until the end of 2020.  

Office spaces will need to be technologically prepared in a meaningful way for hybrid meetings. In fact, the respondents said video conferencing rooms and investing in them should be a top priority for their company’s future success. Natural collaboration with colleagues in the office space was named by almost half of all employees surveyed as the biggest advantage to improve productivity and share information. At the same time, the employees made it clear that certain types of meetings require physical presence in the room. This mainly applies to meetings where we meet for the first time with a person we have never met or where important matters would be discussed during which conflicts and possible misunderstandings may occur. Pre-planned formal meetings, even remotely, are becoming a trend.

The biggest advantages of working in an office:

1. Collaboration with colleagues is easier
2. Communicate and meet colleagues
3. Possibility of informal conversations with colleagues
4. I can meet customers in person
5. Technological equipment makes it possible to connect better with participants who work remotely

Meeting type and degree of preference of remote meeting:

1. A meeting where information needs to be shared
2. A meeting where it is necessary to solve even unpleasant things
3. One-on-one meeting
4. Regular/repeated meetings with team/colleague
5. Meetings that require creative thinking
6. A meeting where something important needs to be decided

Meetings by usage level:

1. Video conference rooms
2. Standard meeting room
3. Huddle space: open, informal spaces
4. Boardroom: meeting rooms

VIDEO CONFERENCE

Video conferencing is now considered one of the most important investment priorities worldwide. 1 in 3 respondents said they would invest significantly in video conferencing technologies.

Use of the video conference room:

• 8 in 10 employees use video conferencing in an office environment more than once a week.
• 1 in 3 employees use a video conference platform more than once a day.
• There are 14 different video conferencing platforms mentioned that are used regularly, Microsoft Teams/Skype, Zoom, Google Meet and Cisco Webex Meetings are used the most.

Degree of regular use of the video conferencing platform:

The findings described above are not surprising at first glance. Video conferencing plays a significant role in remote collaboration, communication and productivity in the world of digital work.

Video conference rooms or rooms containing remote communication solutions (huddle room, focus room, collaboration room…) are becoming just as widely used as standard meeting rooms in an office environment.

• 77% of respondents said they used video conference rooms at least once a week, with 28% using them every day.

Despite all the results mentioned above, feelings about the use of video conferencing are also mixed. These include, for example, frustration, incompatibility of the preferred platform, problems with content sharing, and complicated connection between the room and the video conferencing virtual environment.

• Unable to connect to the meeting room system
• Problems with connecting cables in the meeting room (audio, video, microphone, …)
• The system in the meeting room does not allow external guests and call participants to connect
• Problems setting up phone code / link for ad-hoc meetings
• Unable to share image / content with participants in the room
• Unable to share image / content with remote participants
• The camera in the meeting room does not work
• The video conferencing platform I want to use is incompatible with the technology in the meeting room
• Touchscreen issues when starting a meeting
• Unable to find the meeting phone code

On the other hand, the respondents confirm that video conferencing significantly improves remote meetings.

• 52% say people are better prepared for meetings thanks to video conferencing.
• 47% say they waste less time at the beginning of the meeting and get straight to the point.
• 39% say that there is less talking during a video conference and communication is more purposeful. 

BYOM – Bring Your Own Meeting

A laptop as a window into the world of video conferencing? Bring Your Own Meeting, or BYOM, has exploded during the lockdown, when we were forced to work from home and naturally gravitated towards the software tools we trust.

• 4 in 10 employees use their laptops for video calls once a day. 8 in 10 use them once a week.
• 56% of employees prefer video calls from their laptop
• 54% use the camera in their laptop, even if they are sitting in the room, 60% complain that the camera does not work as expected.

Collaboration and communication during the first and second wave revolves around the laptop. The respondents said they preferred video calling from their laptop: almost three times more than the second most common choice, which was in-room video conferencing systems.

The full study can be downloaded here

Are you interested in more detailed information on HYBRID work/collaboration and available/verified communication technologies? Contact our business consultants.